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The Mi Note sports a 5.7-inch screen, with a Snapdragon 801 2.5 GHz processor powering it, alongside 3GB RAM. The 16GB version retails for 2,299 CNY (around $370), while the 64GB model is 2,799 (circa $450).
The Xiaomi Mi Note Pro is priced at 3299 CNY (~$535) for a 64 bit model. and it is clearly response to Apple´s iPhone 6 Plus considering XIAOMI CEO and co-founder Lei Jun made multiple references and comparisons of the two phones.
Jun said he was proud that his company’s new device is lighter, thinner and lighter than the iPhone 6+, but yet it has a larger screen.
The Xiaomi CEO also made reference to the obtruding camera of the iPhone 6+, pointing out that — you guessed it — the rear-facing camera on Xiaomi’s new device doesn’t stick out in that way.
Xiaomi has added optical image stabalization to the 13-megapixel front-facing camera too, and Lei Jun impressed the crowd with a series of images captured from the Mi Note.


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April 28, 2022
Ontario Budget 2022 is confirmation that Doug Ford is the most pro auto retail Premier in Ontario’s history.
The Trillium Automobile Dealers Association is extremely grateful Premier Ford and Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy are investing $23.9 million for the Digital Dealer Registration program in Ontario’s 2022 Budget.
Digital Dealer has been the top legislative priority for Ontario new car dealers for nearly a decade.
The days of dealership staff wasting time and money waiting in line or making multiple trips to a licensing office to deliver paperwork are numbered. Thanks to Digital Dealer, consumers can get behind the wheel of their new car minutes after signing on the dotted line- instead of making another trip to the dealership.
Once fully implemented, Digital Dealer will help move online up to 4.8 million dealership registration transactions annually including the registration of pre‐owned vehicles, vehicle transfers and vehicle permit replacements, all of which must currently be conducted in person.
Ontario new car dealers will now join our peers in other provinces and most US states in providing this streamlined, consumer focused car buying experience.
This game-changing announcement comes after other monumental policies supporting auto retail including: eliminating the Drive Clean program, shutting down the College of Trades and lowering the cost of vehicle ownership by cutting gasoline taxes and eliminating licence plate renewal fees.
We’re also excited to see a commitment to build Highway 413 connecting Halton, Peel and York Regions. The TADA has been advocating for this new 400-series highway since 2012 – and are pleased to see the province move forward with this much-needed highway.
Director of Government Relations
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Ambarella (AMBA -0.65%) shareholders have endured intense volatility this year as the stock lurched between gains of 20% and losses of almost 10%. Wall Street is focused on the camera technology specialist's cloudy short-term growth outlook, basically ensuring that shares will swing with every new shift in that trajectory.
Yet the major factors that could doom this investment have more to do with the company's operating structure and its portfolio of intellectual property.
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at a few of the biggest long-term risks facing Ambarella investors.
Ambarella relies on just a few companies to deliver the majority of its revenue. In fact, in each of the past two years, 56% of sales came from its top five customers alone. This concentration exposes the business to major growth swings like the recent one that came from plunging results at GoPro (GPRO 2.67%) beginning last year. Demand from the sports-camera giant slumped as its recent device introductions stumbled in a crowded marketplace, and Ambarella investors shared in the pain.
Ambarella is working hard to diversify its product line to lessen this dependence on just a few niches. It is making progress moving deeper into security products and cameras designed for use in automobiles. However, it will take time to build up these other areas. GoPro accounted for close to a quarter of Ambarella's sales last year, and management believes its struggles will be an important factor in 2018's results.
Innovation is the key
Technology forms the basis for Ambarella's competitive advantage through patents the company owns on a wide range of technology its engineering team has developed over the years. This intellectual property is anchored by a suite of popular semiconductor design solutions that deliver efficient video compression and processing, based on a low-power, integrated system-on-a-chip platform.
These innovations have advanced the high-definition camera industry and won Ambarella significant market share with manufacturers so far. Yet the pace of change in the segment is dramatic, and that volatility is compounded by the fact that the company is pushing into new industries, like automobiles and drones, that have well-funded competitors and come with engineering challenges that don't necessarily sync up well to Ambarella's core software and semiconductor design strengths.
About three quarters of Ambarella's employee base is dedicated to research and development, which shows just how important it is to the company that it keep leading the way forward with video capture, processing, and sharing innovations. Stumbles in this high-stakes arena will likely first show up in declining gross profit margins before slumping sales growth follows.
Risk and reward
Ambarella hasn't posted a net loss in any of the last five years despite the major step back its operations took in fiscal 2017. It has no long-term debt on its books, either, which gives management flexibility as it pushes to expand the company's addressable market.
There's no question that the potential there is large. High-definition camera technology could form a key part of the autonomous automobile market, for example, and the outlook is similarly bright for wearable cameras, drone cameras, and sports cameras.
If Ambarella holds its innovation lead as these industries mature, it could log explosive growth over the next decade. Investors have to balance that optimism against the real possibility that the company loses its design edge over time.


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In terms of data security, tech company Google banned zoom app on using video conferencing application zoom. The company has ordered its employees not to use the zoom app. Google told employees via e-mail that those who use the zoom app on laptops should immediately delete it from their device.
“Our security team recently told employees that they can no longer run the Zoom App on corporate computers because it does not match our app’s security standards,” a Google spokeswoman said. Zoom can only be used by mobile apps and browsers. The company also said that if an employee wants to make video calling with his friends or family members, this app can be used for him.
The SpaceX company has also banned the app
Companies like NASA and Space X have also refused to let their employees use the zoom app. Apple employees are working from home, according to a Bloomberg report. Meetings are also taking place regarding future plans and products. Which increases the risk of data leakage. Most of the people in the lockdown are also working from their homes. Meetings in the office are also being held at home video calls. Apps like Skype and Zoom are being used for these meetings.
141 countries around the world are currently using the Zoom Video Calling app. But after companies like NASA and Space X, Google has also refused to let its employees use the Zoom app.
Data theft dispute started
According to a report from the website TechCrunch, the video call and to and end of the Zoom app are not encrypted. That is, privacy may be leaked in the meantime. According to the motherboard report, the zoom client’s e-mail address is leaking. Apple had to manage its millions of Mac computers for fear of privacy leaking. The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently warned that this application allows administrators to track people’s activity. Zoom has also been accused of silently sending data to Facebook about a user’s zoom habits. When the user did not even have a Facebook account. According to the motherboard report, this iOS notifies Facebook on opening Android. This is how data leaks on Facebook. Following the allegation, Zoom’s founder said the company is reviewing the feature, which is sharing users’ data with Facebook. However, the company has now removed this feature from sharing data with Facebook.
What is Zoom app?
Zoom App is a free video conferencing app. Through it the user can talk to Maxim 50 people at a time. The app’s user interface is simple, allowing everyone to use it. The app also features one-on-one meetings and 40-minute group calling. This is available on both iOS and Google Play Store platforms. The culture of work from home has started following lockdown in many countries of the world due to coronavirus. The users of the ‘Zoom’ app have jumped significantly. This app is getting full use for offices and virtual classrooms.


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What happens when a leading consulting firm takes a good hard and independent look at greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) from the use of plastics? And compares them to alternative materials such as steel, paper, aluminum and glass?
In July 2022, McKinsey & Company issued a report called Climate Impact of Plastics. Their key finding: “Plastics have a lower total greenhouse gas contribution than alternatives in most applications.”
Turns out that plastics produce less GHGs than available alternatives in 13 out of 14 products measured. In one product, ten times less GHGs!
In reality, we shouldn’t be all that surprised at McKinsey’s findings. Other studies have found similar results.
Based on decades of life cycle analyses (LCAs) that study the environmental impacts of consumer goods, multiple researchers have concluded:
- The use of plastic packaging and products can significantly reduce GHGs compared to alternatives such as steel, paper, aluminum, glass, etc.
- Replacing plastics with alternatives in many applications would significantly increase GHGs.
While studies vary somewhat, research typically shows that using plastic packaging and products results in approximately 2.5 times less GHGs than alternatives (you can read more about these findings).
McKinsey found essentially the same thing. Here’s a synopsis of quotes from their report:
- “This paper examines the total GHG contribution of plastics versus its alternatives, including product life cycle (cradle to grave) and impact of use…”
- “As part of our methodology, we looked closely at examples from five sectors with the highest consumption of plastics—packaging, building and construction, automotive, textiles, and consumer durables—representing around 90 percent of global plastics volume.”
- “Two independent LCA experts reviewed our approach, analyses, and findings to ensure that our methodology was scientifically sound and that our assumptions and data sources were robust and reliable.”
- “…the plastics examined in this paper offer a lower total GHG contribution compared with alternatives in 13 of 14 cases.” [Exception: industrial drums.]
- “In the 13 applications for which plastic has lower emissions, the benefit was 10 to 90 percent lower GHG emissions than the next-best alternatives.”
- And as mentioned above, “… the findings are broadly in line with published reports…”
These results run counter to much of what we hear about plastics. Conventional wisdom often leads us to think that the growing use of plastics must be an outsized contributor to climate change. We hear and see it in the news nearly every day.
But McKinsey and others have found largely the opposite: The growing use of plastics actually drives down GHGs compared to alternatives. McKinsey goes even further, noting that increased use of plastics can play a positive role in combatting climate change:
“…plastics adoption in the near term can help decarbonization efforts in these areas, particularly in terms of food spoilage and energy efficiency, given their lower GHG footprint.”
In other words, the increased use of plastics can help reduce carbon emissions (“decarbonization efforts”) by displacing materials with higher GHGs.
Wow. Who knew? 🤔
Well, as noted above, lots of researchers over the past few decades knew this. Multiple studies reached the same conclusions.
So, now we have decades of data. And a leading consulting firm has independently corroborated these facts and figures. And the findings show that the use of plastics advances our efforts to combat climate change.
Isn’t it time to scrap conventional wisdom and instead rely on science when creating public policy on climate change?
Examples from the McKinsey Report:
- Use of plastic (polyethylene) fuel tanks for hybrid cars results in 90% lower GHGs (10X) than steel tanks.
- Use of plastic (polyurethane) foam insulation results in 80% lower GHGs than fiberglass insulation.
- Use of plastic (PVC) sewer pipes results in 35-45% lower GHGs than concrete or ductile iron pipes.


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Hotel group Rezidor has announced the appointment of general managers for its first two fashion designer branded hotels, in Edinburgh and Kuwait City.
The properties are the first two to open from the collaboration between Rezidor and Italian fashion group Missoni.
Norwegian-born Williamson joins from the Radisson SAS Hotel Belfast, where she was general manager.
Gadet joins from The Radisson SAS Resort in El Quseir, Egypt where he was general manager overseeing the launch of the five-star lifestyle resort.
Hotel Missoni is spearheaded by Missoni creative director, Rosita Missoni, and Rezidor executive vice-president of brands, Gordon McKinnon.
By Gemma Sharkey
E-mail your comments to Gemma Sharkey here.
Looking for a new job? Find your next hotel job here with Caterersearch.com jobs


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Amazon.com's shares booked a big day after a report showed strong sales growth in June at the company and top rival Apple was found to be violating U.S. antitrust laws with e-books.
Shares of the online retailer soared to a new high, briefly surpassing $300 a share, as investors bet the online retailer could be a big winner from Apple's loss in the courts which would give Amazon.com more flexibility in selling e-books. Shares were up $7.30, or 2.5%, to $299.63, according to preliminary calculations.
Investors applauded data from e-commerce tracker ChannelAdvisor that reported that Amazon.com saw a 31% sales increase in June versus sales from June 2012. Such a strong increase in sales growth was beyond most analysts' expectations.
The strong news from ChannelAdvisor encouraged investors coming into the critical back-to-school period, says Colin Sebastian of R. W. Baird. Amazon "shares tend to perform better," at this time of the year, so the timing of the positive news was a solid catalyst, he says.
Traditionally, the second half isn't the strongest for online retailers, but the ChannelAdvisor data indicates Amazon continues to woo more shoppers to do more of their buying online.
Adding to Amazon's momentum, a judge's ruling that Apple violated antitrust law by allegedly conspiring to tamper with e-book pricing could potentially hamper Amazon's chief rival's edge in selling content on its mobile devices.
The ruling, from U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, could give Amazon greater negotiation power with publishers. Amazon is increasingly dependent on sales of e-books for its Kindle readers.
Given the strength in Amazon's core retail business and high hopes for its grocery delivery business, investors are getting interested, says Shawn Milne of Janney Montgomery Scott. "Grow investors are getting warmed up to slightly better growth," he says. "There's a rekindled bullish view on growth."


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The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has announced a proposed rule change to its Mailing Standards for Marketing Mail, which could have ramifications on promo firms.
The notice of the rule change, issued by the USPS in the Federal Register, would limit all USPS Marketing Mail, both regular and nonprofit and both letter-size and flat-size, to “content that is only paper-based/printed matter.” No other merchandise or goods of any type would be allowed to be shipped as Marketing Mail.
This means items often sent as direct-mail pieces or promos, such as pens, buttons, magnets and more, would need to be sent by another shipping method, such as Parcel Select or Priority Mail.
While pricing under the new standards remains to be seen, based on the most recent USPS Price List, companies that have paid Marketing Mail rates for direct-mail items would be looking at price increases by several dollars per parcel when the same item is sent by Parcel Select versus Marketing Mail. Meanwhile, the least expensive Priority Mail flat rate envelopes cost $6.70 a piece.
The changes could significantly affect promo firms and their clients that use Marketing Mail rates to send direct-mail marketing pieces, self-promo products and the like. Peter Palermo, general manager of Elm Street Marketing Essentials Powered by Proforma (asi/300094), told Counselor the change would impact his team’s marketing and prospecting strategies.
“We do a tremendous amount of dimensional mail with custom boxes containing promotional products, both for self-promotion and for clients,” Palermo told Counselor. “It’s very effective at opening doors for an appointment, showcasing creative ideas or just sending samples. The increased cost would kill this very effective tactic by more than doubling the postage on these mailings.”
To go into effect, the change would require adoption by the USPS Board of Governors, but it’s already encountering challenges. The Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers has issued a letter to the USPS this week calling the proposed change “unlawful.”
“Nonprofit mailers rely heavily on Marketing Mail that contains merchandise,” the letter goes on to say. “For these kinds of mail matter, Marketing Mail is often the most economical channel of communication, and by a wide margin. Excluding merchandise or goods from Marketing Mail would needlessly deprive the Postal Service of profitable mail volumes, give mailers another incentive to find alternative marketing channels, and force more nonprofit publications to close.”
The Alliance also says that the change would violate a section of the United States Code that entitles nonprofits to mail content at nonprofit Marketing Mail rates.
In the proposal, the USPS lists benefits of the change that include allowing the USPS to track more merchandise, and reducing operational inefficiencies that occur when machines can’t process inflexible letter- or flat-size pieces.
“The Postal Service has many products available to support this shift and seeks to align postal processing with the intentions of its mailing customers,” said Ruth Stevenson, an attorney for the USPS, in the official proposal. “This shift also simplifies the mailing experience: Letter-size and flat-size pieces will move through processing and delivery more efficiently.”
Still, some in the industry aren’t convinced. “In a world of ‘how can we do more for our customers,’ there’s always someone who goes in the opposite direction,” Paul Lage, president of Top 40 supplier Imagen Brands, told Counselor. “It’s not surprising that it’s the USPS, which never seems to make money. Instead of trying to attract customers, they’re steering them away. Instead of updating their equipment, they want to charge more. That sounds like a government program. Someday there will be a company that sees this as an opportunity and will step in and do it all.”
The USPS is inviting comments on the proposed change to be made before October 22. Written comments can be mailed or delivered to the Manager, Product Classification, U.S. Postal Service, 475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Room 4446, Washington, D.C. 20260-5015. They can also be emailed to email@example.com with the subject line “USPS Marketing Mail Content Eligibility.”


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Each of the 820 million transistors on Intel’s three-gigahertz quad-core processor is only 45 nanometers across, 30 percent smaller than those on previous commercial chips. Smaller transistors need thinner layers of electrical insulation–or dielectrics–which is hard to acheive with the traditional insulator, silicon dioxide. With its 45-nanometer chips, however, Intel has begun using a new insulator, hafnium oxide. The quad-core processor (shown here) will probably be used in network servers; a smaller, dual-core processor could turn up in high-end desktop computers.
Cost: $999 in quantities of 1,000
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A pioneer of modern robotics talks about deep learning and what robots will really be doing in a future not far away. Hear from John Dabiri on what drives his work on the design of novel wind turbines and wind farms.
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Officials say it shouldn’t be illegal for the government to track and shoot down drones it deems threatening.


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Gates said the United States is making the issue "a bit challenging right at the moment in terms of predictability and stability and finding the right approach".
"It's buying something because you expect the pool of people who want to buy it because they want to sell it to somebody else, will grow".
Commenting on the Squawk Box segment of the Bitcoin network in February, Bill Gates stated that the crypto currencies were cause for direct deaths, but nevertheless did not cut the ties completely with the cryptocurrency.
Club Puts Iniesta's Move To China On Hold
He joined the club's famed La Masia academy as a 12-year-old, before rising through the ranks and becoming the legend he is today.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies grabbed a lot of attention from market players like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and recently NASDAQ chief executive Adena Friedman. Gates says that his problem with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is when they're viewed as an asset class because they don't "produce anything".
In his joint interview with legendary investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffett and the company's vice chairman Charlie Munger for CNBC, he expressed his view on the nature of Bitcoin and its future. Buffet called Bitcoin as "rat poison squared" and Munger said Trading Cryptocurrency is like trading turds. He also said cryptocurrency would come to a bad end. Though it is clear that Bitcoin differs from traditional investments and it acts differently, according to crypto supporters, it shouldn't be considered as a disadvantage of Bitcoin as it is done by many gurus of traditional investors.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought another 75 million shares of Apple, the billionaire said Thursday. In the investment world, shorting is when you bet against an asset and make money if its value falls. Most high-profile bitcoin naysayers have been Wall Street types, such as JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and billionaire investors like Buffett and Carl Icahn, all of whom have been generally dismissed by cryptocurrency advocates as old-timers who just don't get it.
Mr Green comments: It comes as little surprise that Mr Buffett and his 94-year-old business partner, Charlie Munger, criticized cryptocurrencies at their annual meeting.
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Out-Law News | 17 Dec 2018 | 3:17 pm | 1 min. read
The ruling has helped to clarify the scope of Germany's laws on payment surcharges, said Igor Barabash of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com.
On 13 January 2018 a new section of the German Civil Code was introduced to ban online businesses from applying cost-covering surcharges when accepting many common types of payment. The rules, which only concern business-to-consumer transactions and which implement rules in the EU's second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), apply to all SEPA credit transfers and direct debits, as well as debit and credit card transactions processed via a four-party scheme, such as payments made using Visa, Mastercard and Girocard, which are popular in Germany.
Previously, online retailers were able to recover the costs they incurred when accepting certain payments from buyers provided that they provided alternative common and reasonable means of payments to those customers for free.
In a ruling last week, the district court of Munich confirmed that payments via PayPal and via 'Sofortüberweisung', which is a third party product in Germany that enables immediate transfer of funds, are subject to the new rules as well.
The Munich court was considering the scope of the payment surcharging rules after the Centre for Protection against Unfair Competition (Wettbewerbszentrale) complained that FlixMobility, which has a share of about 75% of the German long distance travel bus market, was imposing a surcharge on online bookings.
Barabash said: "It is surprising that FlixMobility let things come as far as court with regard to use of 'Sofortüberweisung' given that this payment method is based on a SEPA-transfer and is subject to the PDS2 regime. With regard to PayPal, the ruling is only logical and corresponds with the aim of the PSD2 to ensure that payment surcharges for common and market standard payment options shall not be forwarded to the customer."
"Given that the price competition between German online shops is quite fierce, retailers are likely to have to bear those charges themselves as they will find it difficult to pass the charges onto consumers through increased prices of their products and services," he said.


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You could say 2013 was a year of experimentation for McDonald’s: Fish McBites came out in February, McWraps in March, and Mighty Wings in September—all relative novelty items for the fast-food giant. All that innovation amounted to a 0.2 percent drop in U.S. same-store sales over the year. Maybe that’s why for its first permanent addition to the menu in 2014, McDonald’s is sticking to basics: a new burger.
The Bacon Clubhouse, available in beef or chicken this week, is the chain’s first burger besides the Big Mac to be topped with special sauce. It comes with leaf lettuce—not the shredded stuff—and a thick slice of tomato. Taking a cue from Wendy’s fancy bread strategy, the Clubhouse is served on an “artisan roll.” A reviewer on Grubgrade.com called it “the most satisfying burger I’ve ever had from McDonald’s.”


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MetroPCS Hints at LightSquared LTE Deal
"Roger [Linquist, MetroPCS CEO] has been very clear we're supportive of what LightSquared is doing," CFO Braxton Carter said on a call with investors. "If there are opportunities for us to take advantage of 4G LTE build from a roaming standpoint then, yes, we would be very interested in that."
LightSquared announced it has reached deals with two U.S. wireless operators for its wholesale LTE networks, but hasn't said which ones. T-Mobile US Inc. and MetroPCS are the most likely candidates. (See LightSquared Tees Up $586M Loan Deal .)
MetroPCS has been moving along with its LTE plans but is limited in geographical reach, making a partnership with LightSquared more attractive. The carrier has completed its rollout to all its markets, save one, which COO Tom Keys said will launch soon. Metro also recently introduced the first LTE smartphone, the Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Korea: SEC) Galaxy Indulge, and inked a deal with Mavenir Systems Inc. to develop voice-over-LTE. (See MetroPCS Intros First LTE Smartphone, MetroPCS Turns on LTE in Four More Markets and MetroPCS Taps Mavenir for LTE Messaging.)
Its 4G network may not be helping it sign up droves of new customers, however. It added 298,000 new customers in the fourth quarter, down from the 317,000 added in the same quarter last year.
Carter wouldn't go into monetary details for its LTE deployment, but noted that Metro never expected to switch on a significant number of subscribers overnight.
"Until two weeks ago, we only had one handset out there," he said. "It's not meaningful at this point to get specific about what we're seeing."
Light Reading Mobile caught up with MetroPCS SVP Ed Chao at last week's Mobile World Congress. See the video below for his updates on Metro's LTE deployment.
RIP Feature Phones
Along with its move to 4G, Metro is expecting a "smartphone tsunami" and is looking to clear out its feature-phone inventory to make room for it.
"We think that feature phones are dead," Keys said. "The future's all about the smartphone experience," particularly on Android.
To date, one third of Metro's subscriber base is purchasing or upgrading to smartphones, Keys added. He said that higher-end LTE handsets will carry higher subsidies, but he believes the increase in brand awareness among consumers will be the pay-off.
"We find that our customers do want attractive phones even at higher prices if they are truly world class," Linquist added. "Our job is to make sure as we build our lineup of phones, we really get to handsets that people would say are world-class phones. That to us in the short term is a more immediate challenge [than high subsidies]."
— Sarah Reedy, Senior Reporter, Light Reading Mobile


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Innovation around the way your customers can pay while in stores is gathering pace, particularly for mobile payments. Rebecca Thomson finds out where transactions are heading
“People are convinced mobile will be a success, but nobody’s quite sure in what form,”
John Milliken, Mobile Money Network
When it comes to point-of-sale systems, a crystal ball would be helpful. Retailers only invest in them once a decade, and they need to last that long – how do they know what technologies will become impossible to live without, and what will fall by the wayside?
The experts agree that mobile is the next big step. But while much of the so-called new technology has been around for 10 years, the form it will take when it does finally become a normal part of shopping is still yet to be determined. “People are convinced mobile will be a success, but nobody’s quite sure in what form,” says Mobile Money Network managing director John Milliken.
There’s a plethora of options available. Contactless payments, enabled by near field communication technology (NFC) embedded in a phone, is one major area of development, while applications complete with barcode scanners, which can be downloaded on to mobile devices, are another. The challenge for retailers is to work out what will work best for their customers.
Knowledge is power
The driving factor behind the adoption of mobile payments won’t be the simple exchange of money. If retailers and customers do get on board in a meaningful way, it will be because of the increased information mobile transactions can bring to both parties.
“Online, retailers know an awful lot more about the consumer,”
John Lunn, PayPal
Customers will be interested in mobile spending, says PayPal director of platform and innovations John Lunn, because they’ll get a better experience. Mobile has the potential to be both more convenient and more relevant. For instance, a customer could receive an offer based on which store they’re near, pay for the product using a mobile application, and tell their friends about the purchase on Facebook.
Meanwhile, retailers will get access to a shopper’s decision-making process – something they’ve never had before. Making the mobile experience enticing means customers are more likely to give the retailer plenty of information about themselves – from where they are in a store to how they search for a product, something Lunn calls a “commercial profile”.
“Online, retailers know an awful lot about the consumer,” he says. “They don’t in store. By using this technology they’ll get the same level of information as they do online.”
Even if retailers decide they want contactless payments, they still have to decide whether they want an RFID chip, which is cheaper, or NFC technology, which can do more. The next question might be whether retailers should buy scanners that accept Apple’s iPhone or the O2 Wallet – which aims to be an Oyster card, debit card and phone in one – or whether they should use an application. “Choosing your partner is perhaps the biggest challenge for retailers,” says Stuart Orr, head of the communications practice across Europe, Africa and Latin America at Accenture. “There are huge numbers of competing companies offering different things.”
Unfortunately, there’s no substitute for hard work. When it comes to figuring out the best option for your payments systems it’s a case of sitting down and deciding what your customers’ journeys are likely to look like, what end you’re working towards, and then sifting through the suppliers available. “There’s a lot of groundwork that needs to be done,” says Orr.
Laying the ground rules
The mobile operators and technology suppliers also have work to do. While there are some useful packages on offer, the industry needs a level of consensus on what standards should apply – it’s unlikely retailers will accept a state of affairs where the major operators all require different hardware to scan different NFC-
enabled phones. “There are competing standards and platforms,” says Orr. “Users are confused and retailers are confused. There needs to be a degree of standardisation.”
But the experts are convinced that once a few final hurdles are ironed out, contactless payments will be unstoppable – especially once Apple produces a phone with NFC, rumoured to be in 2012, which is likely to represent a tipping point. Rufus Evison, insight director at mobile consultancy Starfish 360, says widespread pickup will start in earnest once a supermarket invests in the technology. And, he predicts that “anyone who hasn’t invested within seven years is going to suffer major leakage of customers”.
Contactless payments are likely to win, says Milliken, because there’s something in it for everyone. The mobile operators are pushing hard for it; consumers will like the convenience once security fears are allayed; and retailers stand to gain from the convenience – making spontaneous purchases more likely – and the seemingly endless opportunity for data gathering. In the future, what will set the winning technology apart is ubiquity. He advises retailers to invest in something suitable for and available to the entire customer base – after all, what makes mobile so exciting is the possibility of paying for products anywhere.
For others, timing is key. Orr says knowing when to invest is crucial. “A lot of retailers are looking at each other, trying to see who’s going to be first. Point-of-sale systems are a huge investment. Retailers are keen to make sure they place their bets as infrequently and successfully as possible.” Being a ‘fast follower’ is a good strategy he says.
It might be a few years before mobile contactless payments within stores becomes the norm, says Aurora Fashions group IT director John Bovill. “No doubt customers will want the option to use their phones to purchase higher-value items in time, but we need to address some practical considerations. There needs to be a wide distribution of appropriate mobile devices among our customers. The retailer will also need the supporting hardware in stores, and across 1,500 stores that’s quite a considerable cost. Other considerations are the in-store payment and purchasing process, and product packaging,” he says. But the technology solutions are there – once the practical hurdles are jumped, payment should become a far more fluid process.
Mobile will enable transactions to take place anywhere, shed light on the decision-making of store consumers, and enable entirely new services by combining payments with information. At this stage it seems the only long-term limit to mobile-enabled innovation is the retail industry’s imagination.
How mobile could change payments
- Mobile applications from service providers such as PayPal mean customers can pay by connecting to their PayPal account on their mobile. Amazon and Google have also released payment services
- Several mobile phone operators have trialled or released phones with near field communication technology (NFC), which enables a phone to send and receive payment data from a reader using an embedded chip. Orange and Barclaycard have just launched the Quick Tap Mobile Payment service. O2 has trialled its NFC-enabled O2 Wallet, which combines an Oyster-style travel card with a credit card and phone, but the product it plans for this year has a suite of payment applications rather than NFC. Apple’s iPhone 6, due to be released in 2012, is rumoured to have the technology and Google has trialled it as well. RFID chips can be used to do a similar job, but while cheaper, they don’t have such wide functionality
- Mobile payments could tie in with other mobile services. A consumer’s smartphone could be used to log their location using Facebook or a similar network, send them a personalised offer drawing them into a nearby store using information on their past purchases or interests, and then be used to pay for products using NFC or an application


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China-backed manufacturer Faraday Future has been given permission to test its autonomous vehicles on the roads of California.
Alongside Faraday Future, 13 other companies were given the green light to test autonomous vehicles on the public highway. They range from Silicon Valley startups like Zoox and Drive.ai, to established car industry names such as Nissan and BMW.
The famously mysterious car maker is based in Los Angeles, and recently began work on its new manufacturing facility in Nevada. The complex is set to cost $1 billion and cover 900 acres, as the company aims to have its first vehicles rolling off the production line in 2018.
Little is known about what type of cars we can expect from Faraday Future, other than that they will have electric propulsion and autonomous features.
So far the only vehicle it has revealed is the FFZero1 concept, pictured. The luxury hypercar has an electric motor at each wheel, making a total of 1000bhp. Faraday Future claims the car can accelerate from 0-60mph in under three seconds, with a top speed of more than 200mph.
Richard Kim, Head of Design, Faraday Future, said: "The FFZERO1 Concept is an amplified version of the design and engineering philosophies informing FF's forthcoming production vehicles.
Faraday Future clearly intends to disrupt the automotive industry as we know it, claiming it is "developing clean, intuitive, seamlessly connected electric vehicles that will advance future mobility solutions for society by consistently challenging the status quo, reinventing our processes, and embracing new technologies."


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LOS ANGELES — Flamingo Estate, a lifestyle company set in a 1940s Spanish-style house in the hills on the border between the Eagle Rock and Highland Park neighborhoods, sells candles that smell like tomatoes and rosemary. Oprah Winfrey named them one of her favorite things.
Pink is a theme for both the brand and the house. Its facade is pink stucco. Its Pink Moon rosé was made to match the color on the underside of a flamingo’s wing. The company makes botanical products, not all of which are obvious hits. Last Christmas, its infamous nine-pound sack of manure (using a synonym for excrement) that cost $75, went viral. It’s currently out of stock.
For $80 before shipping, one can purchase a 6.5-ounce jar of dried strawberries dusted with guajillo chile and a squeeze of lime. They are snacks, yes, but also they are statements: If you can afford them, money is not something that concerns you. Everything is shipped in boxes printed with the motto: “We are a home for radical pleasure.”
Though Flamingo Estate was named after the home of its founder, Richard Christiansen, the name implies something far bigger than the seven-acre lot he shares with Aaron Harvey, his partner (and the creative director of the company), and their dogs, Daylesford and Freeway.
“A potential investor just came over and was like, ‘Wait, everything is from here?’” Mr. Christiansen said. “She was expecting hundreds of acres in the middle of Los Angeles.” He had to explain that though Flamingo Estates, the brand, was inspired by his house he now uses ingredients from 110 local farms.
Mr. Christiansen bought his home eight years ago. It was once a porn studio, and he transformed it into an Instagram playland.
“It’s over the top,” said Martha Stewart, who has known Mr. Christiansen for years and wrote the foreword to the Flamingo Estate cookbook ($78). “He buys a house on the top of the hill overlooking Los Angeles, and he transforms this ex-porn king’s mansion into a veritable paradise of gardens and deep, dark baths and furniture that’s crazy and good. He looks like a young boy with pink cheeks, and he’s generous and thoughtful and busy, yet you never think he’s that busy.”
The vibe skews colorful and vaguely tropical. In the living room, there is a limited-edition David Hockney “Caribbean Tea Time” screen and a large floral printed sofa from the Belgian designer JP Demeyer, mixed with chairs and side tables bought at Parisian flea markets. In the kitchen, a terrazzo floor in shades of mint, white, black and rose is dominated by an enormous antique stove. Just off the kitchen is a small bar with vintage Baccarat crystal decanters and bamboo stools.
Mr. Christiansen’s home is where nearly everything the brand sells is staged and photographed, and it drives sales. It has also served as a background for Quentin Tarantino and Margot Robbie to be photographed for magazine spreads, for Billie Eilish to be interviewed by the BBC, and for Emily Weiss, the Glossier founder, to host her baby shower.
It would be easy to mistake Flamingo Estate for a hotel or club. “I thought it was a public space that people could maybe purchase a ticket to, like a garden,” Chrissy Teigen said in a voice memo. She asked Mr. Christiansen over Instagram if she could bring her family. “We pulled up and I knocked on the gate and Richard popped out, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, wait, this is not a public entity of any kind.’”
Mr. Christiansen gave them a tour, and her kids played with the chickens. “I fully believe Richard is an angel or an alien from another planet,” Ms. Teigen said. “At the risk of sounding very L.A., he has this energy about him and this aura about him that’s really special.”
They ended up making three jams together — as in the kind of jams one spreads on scones, not the musical variety.
A Man With Many Ideas
Architects from the French firm Studio KO did the renovation of Mr. Christiansen’s home, basing some of the landscaping on hot weather gardens in Morocco. Surveying the grounds after an exceptionally cold and wet California winter, Mr. Christiansen sounded poetic: “The sage has exploded, the wisteria has purple blooms. The orchard is so joyful, it’s like it’s singing.”
There are climbing jasmine vines and a cast-concrete bathhouse with a fireplace and tiles that match the Balearic Sea. Mr. Christiansen is interested in someday creating a Flamingo Estate “temple to bathing” — inspired by the one at Flamingo Estate.
But he is a man with many ideas. Last year the company introduced $250 jars of honey culled from beehives placed in the gardens of celebrities, including Ai Weiwei and Julianne Moore.
“How wild is it that LeBron’s honey on the Westside tastes completely different from Tiffany Haddish’s in South Central,” Mr. Christiansen said. He is still negotiating who will participate next.
Ms. Moore said the process was easy. “There is a beekeeper in Montauk he contacted, and she tended the bees and collected the honey,” she said. “We continue to have the bees.”
Mr. Christiansen stood with his dogs inside the goat keeper’s shed, a space the size of a small office, full of jars with labels that read “fermented indigo” and decorated with custom hand-painted wallpaper from the British company de Gournay depicting local flora and fauna: cactuses, owls and cliff roses.
The dogs have a slightly adversarial relationship with the goats, who live in a pen with the chickens. On a stormy Sunday in February, realizing the goats were cold, Mr. Christiansen posted a call for cashmere sweaters on Instagram. “I was like, ‘Oh, it’s freezing, the poor goats,’” Mr. Christiansen said. Now the goats wear cashmere.
Mr. Christiansen stood overlooking proteas and mimosa plants that reminded him of his native Australia. His parents were beekeepers who raised him on their sugar cane farm in northern New South Wales. They didn’t entertain. He was a kid obsessed with Chanel and Calvin Klein ads in magazines, who studied law and then went into marketing.
Flamingo Estate began as a pandemic project. After almost two decades at Chandelier Creative, the agency he founded in 2005, Mr. Christiansen, 46, was depleted emotionally and physically. The company worked with a lot of fashion brands and had offices in Los Angeles, New York and Paris.
Mr. Christiansen was living in Los Angeles. Chandelier was at a standstill in the early days of the pandemic. (He is no longer involved in the agency.) That was when he met a woman who was in danger of losing her farm because she sold food to restaurants that were closed.
He started selling her fresh produce to friends in $35 boxes. Word spread among other farmers who were eager to join. Farmers sold directly to Flamingo Estate, which paid them weekly in cash. “It was $300 that week, $600 the next week,” Mr. Christiansen said. “And you know, it just kept growing. One farm became two, became five, became 10 and now 110. We didn’t have any intention that it would become really a business.”
“At some point we shifted to a model that was more structured, asking farmers, ‘Why don’t you plant stuff specifically for us?’”
Locals like Kris Jenner can still pick up farm boxes, but that’s just one part of Flamingo Estate’s business. Sales have doubled each year, Mr. Christiansen said, noting that revenue was $10 million last year. “We are about to hit profit this next quarter,” he said.
Seventy-five percent of the customers, according to information provided by Mr. Christiansen, are women between 24 and 40 years old. They are split evenly between the East and West Coast. “The opportunity for us is in cities like Chicago, Dallas, Miami,” he said.
“I really do think we’ve got these two customer segments,” he continued. “We’ve got people who care a lot about the environment and about sourcing and about farming. Then I think we’ve got this customer here who’s a luxury shopper, who thinks the house is curated and likes the brand and especially the collaborations we do, and sometimes they cross over. But very rarely, actually.”
Making the Leap
The marketing side of Mr. Christiansen still burns very bright. Each Sunday he pulls the information on the top 50 customers that week and texts or calls them. “This one customer was literally our best customer over and over and over again,” he said. “And I was, like, I wonder who this is? And then I had a lovely conversation with him. And then, you know, one thing led to another. Now that customer is an investor via a family office.”
Mr. Christiansen, at first, courted individual investors for funding rather than venture capital firms. “I hate dealing with money,” he said. “I don’t even check my A.T.M. balance.”
For all that, the Flamingo Estate brand just closed a round of outside funding. It raised $7.5 million, earmarked for working capital.
“We have left the kids’ table and gone to the adults’ table,” Mr. Christiansen said.
“We spoke to some people who were green investors, and a number of them were, like, we’ll only invest in organic-certified or regenerative-certified, whatever — just very didactic about it. I said that for some small growers, getting certified organic is really difficult. It’s expensive.”
Mr. Christiansen is also open to working with large agricultural companies. “For me, progress would be that situation where people say we’re far from perfect,” he said. “The opportunity for me is to work with someone who’s got room to improve. In our industry there’s so much greenwashing. It makes me irate that people give themselves a pat on the back for one or two ingredients that are goodish for the world.”
This summer, Flamingo Estate is opening a pop-up in an old auto body shop in East Hampton, N.Y., the idea being to bring your body in for a summer tuneup. The gas station snack section will be called the Inconvenience Store. There are books coming out later this year, including a workbook on how to live a pleasurable life and another called “House of Radical Pleasure,” which will be a tour of the property divided by the senses.
Flamingo Estate, the home, is key to the allure of Flaming Estate, the brand, even if having one’s home as a kind of living set and rotating dinner party can be annoying. Mr. Harvey, he said with a laugh, is frustrated with it: “He’s tired of making the bed.”
“Even though we’ve grown quickly, it’s still super-personal,” he said. “We make stuff that I want to use in the kitchen. I use the soap in the shower. I do all of the social myself. It’s still my kitchen, my bathroom, my dogs and my trees.”


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When Chinese e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba announced several months ago that it was planning an initial public offering this year, the excitement generated hadn’t been seen since Facebook went public in 2012. The IPO, which will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “BABA,” has been hailed as possibly one of the biggest yet, with some experts speculating that it could rack up more than $20 billion.
But even with the intense anticipation, sources tell The Wall Street Journal that Alibaba may have to wrestle with a spate of challenges leading up to its public-market debut.
One dilemma, says the newspaper, is how to “create enough fervor to keep the shares rising in the days after it goes public.” The WSJ says that to accomplish this, some investors might have to “pony up $1 billion or more” to ensure demand remains high.
Then there’s the formidable task of spreading the word about Alibaba, a Chinese company unknown to some U.S. investors.
In addition, Alibaba’s governance structure could pose a problem. The company, notes the news outlet citing unnamed sources, “empowers a group of partners to nominate a majority of the corporate board.” Regulators may question “the structure of some of [Alibaba’s] assets, which due to China’s foreign-ownership limits are separately owned by outside companies.”
And although Alibaba is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and will trade on a U.S. exchange, it is domiciled in China, which means it won’t be tracked by major benchmarks, such as the S& P 500, which only follows U.S.-based firms. Clearly, this is an issue, says the WSJ, because “if a stock isn’t in a certain index, some funds can’t buy it.”
That doesn’t mean Alibaba will be included in Chinese and emerging market indexes either. Because of Alibaba’s “unusual three-legged structure, corporate domicile and chosen listing venue,” it might not be eligible to join indexes such as the FTSE Group and the MSCI focused on China and emerging markets, says the WSJ.
With these potential disadvantages, Alibaba might have to be especially aggressive when courting investors. Taking this into account, WSJ theorizes that the company may have to “pitch itself to portfolio managers focused on every sector, from Asia to Internet retailing to consumers, even targeting broad general global funds.”
Despite early chatter that the company would launch its IPO by the first week in August, according to recent reports from various news outlets, such as CNBC, the stock will likely debut sometime after Labor Day.
Photo: Thomas LOMBARD, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0


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BAPE Brings the Glow-In-The-Dark Treatment to Its Shark Hoodie
BAPE heads rejoice.
The BAPE Shark Hoodie has been an ever-present staple in the Japanese streetwear stalwart’s lineup. Both the full zip-up feature and signature Shark Face motif across the hood have made it one of the most coveted items year after year. Despite already dropping in a couple of variations this season, the piece has made its way back into the fold by way of yet another iteration, this time boasting a glow-in-the-dark color treatment on one side, while the other boasts a more conventional 1st Camo pattern in grey. Extending all the way from the bottom of the body to the hood, BAPE fans can now show their allegiance to the brand even when it’s completely dark outside. By the looks of it a corresponding crewneck variation featuring the same color treatment is set to release in the near future as well. Stay tuned for more updates regarding the release date and pricing.
For BAPE’s full Spring/Summer 2017 collection check out the brand’s lookbook here.


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K/DA will return to League of Legends with a new K/DA ALL OUT skin line
K/DA, the virtual pop girl group, will make their League of Legends comeback later this month with a brand new skin line in anticipation of their upcoming EP, ALL OUT. As part of a multi-game K/DA content release, SIX new skins will be added to League of Legends including a Prestige Edition and Ultimate skin for the new champion, Seraphine.
Riot Games revealed the ALL OUT skin line in an exciting announcement video and event teaser titled K/DA ALL OUT: Comeback. In the video, all six new skins can be spotted as well as confirmation that the 152nd League of Legends champion will be Seraphine, the Starry-Eyed Songstress.
The pop group’s multi-game comeback begins on Thursday, 29 October with the official release of the K/DA All Out skin line which features all four original members and their latest collaborator.
Seraphine will make her Public Beta Environment (PBE) debut on Tuesday, 13 October in preparation for her full release, which will presumably be some time during Patch 10.22.
Here’s a full breakdown of the K/DA ALL OUT content heading to League of Legends:
Seraphine the Starry-Eyed Songstress
Riot Games has finally confirmed that the 152nd champion joining League of Legends will be Seraphine, the Starry-Eyed Songstress. The new champion has already made a huge impact on the League of Legends community through her social media posts, generating hype for K/DA’s upcoming EP.
It has been revealed that Seraphine is intended to be a mid laner or support champion and will be available for 7800 Blue Essence when she is released on Patch 10.22.
Seraphine will also receive League of Legends’ sixth Ultimate skin following the likes of Pulsefire Ezreal, Spirit Guard Udyr, and Elementalist Lux.
K/DA ALL OUT Seraphine will be available for 3250 RP and will involved three different forms, all representing different stages of the Songstress’ life based on her social media persona.
K/DA ALL OUT Skins
All four original K/DA members (Ahri, Akali, Evelynn, and Kai’Sa) will receive a K/DA ALL OUT skin which will be available shortly after Patch 10.22 hits League of Legends live servers. The skins will be Epic tier and priced at 1350 RP each.
The skins can be viewed during the opening ten seconds of the event teaser and will be added to the Public Beta Environment (PBE) over the next few weeks.
K/DA ALL OUT Kai’Sa Prestige Edition
No K/DA skin line is complete without a Prestige Edition. This time, Kai’Sa is the lucky recipient of the Prestige skin which will cost 2000 Worlds Tokens which can be earned during the Worlds 2020 event.
Seraphine will make her Summoner’s Rift debut on the Public Beta environment on Tuesday, 13 October. The new K/DA skins will be added to the game and be purchasable from Thursday, 29 October.


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Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong; Le Van Khoa, deputy chairman and representatives from departments, agencies in the city visited Saigon Co.op and Saigon Trading Group (Satra) yesterday.
Chairman Phong appreciated highly Saigon Co.op's efforts in ensuring social security and being good in stabilization program, linking between production and consumption to diversify the goods to domestic market.
The Chairman said in January 2016 alone, the city's indexes reached its target and the city's budget collection valued VND 31,000 billion.
He mentioned that Saigon Co.op should become more active and creative in seeking potential partners to develop goods, meeting the city people's demand.
Mr. Nguyen Diep Dung, Chairmam of Saigon Co.op said during Tet holidays, Saigon Co.op's revenue was over VND 4,000 billion, an increase of 16.5 percent compared to last year, meeting the highest revenue in the recent three years.
Mr. Le Tung, Chairman of Satra said in 2015 Satra's revenue was VND 48,000 billion. On this occasion, Chairman Phong said the city approved Satra's adjustment plan in investment capital.
Accordingly, Satra can add its chartered capital up to VND 8,600 billion, bringing Satra to be the leading economic group in the country, hoping that Satra's brandname will have a better competitive ability in the country and region.


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Data this week is the time measured in months by which Shake Shack plans to roll out self-service kiosks in almost ALL of its locations. Talk about problem-solving.
Technology is a deflationary force, and this is further evidence of that notion.
When faced with issues, companies constantly turn to solutions. During COVID, companies turned on websites, ordering capabilities, and digital payment solutions.
Over the last 12 months, inflation has impacted restaurant-level margins, prompting companies to think about the current environment while also positioning for the future—the type of mentality you want in a business.
Here are other companies doing the same:
• Mcdonald's plans to roll out kiosks across its fleet of over 15k locations.
• KFC rolling out kiosks internationally
• White Castle puts 100 robot burger flippers across its fleet.
• Panera is putting robots across chains
• Restaurant Brands International mentioned kiosk success.
• Chipotle testing robot for making their chips.
Potential Investment Implications
The direct investment implications are two-fold.
First, the speed at which companies adapt to situations should provide a sigh of relief as the world works through inflation. Think about how fast the world adapted to COVID. As we see more demand for robotics and automation, the price for these solutions naturally decline, increasing the return on investment. It is clear we are at that moment where companies see a return on investment made into these kiosks and robots.
The second takeaway should be around one major trend we have been talking about here at Avory, the power and future will incorporate a heavy dose of automation.
Disclaimer: See the disclaimer page. Not a recommendation to purchase or sell any securities mentioned.


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Latest OCAU News
After months of speculation, we finally have some official details of AMD's Ryzen CPUs. They have launched three high-end models, all with 8 cores and 16 threads. We've been hoping AMD will bring the fight back to Intel and these early in-house results look promising. Independent review results are still not released to the public yet, but there's coverage of this launch on Tech Report, Tweaktown, HotHardware and ArsTechnica.
Discussion and a huge amount of info in this thread and this thread in our AMD Hardware forum.
|Tuesday Night Reviews
Tuesday, 21-February-2017 23:10:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg
Motherboard & CPU:
ASUS ROG Maximus IX Apex (Intel Z270) on Tweaktown.
Pentium G4500 CPU on HWSecrets.
Windows 10 vs. Ubuntu Linux OpenGL Benchmarks With A Core i7 7700K on Phoronix.
MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Armor OC 6 GB on TechPowerUp.
NVIDIA Quadro P4000 And P2000 Workstation GPUs on HotHardware.
Radeon Windows 10 vs. Linux RadeonSI/RADV Gaming Performance on Phoronix.
Corsair K95 RGB Platinum Gaming Keyboard on FunkyKit.
Tesoro Gram Spectrum RGB Keyboard on TechPowerUp.
Corsair K95 RGB Platinum on OCAholic.
Cherry MX Board 6.0 Keyboard on ThinkComputers.
Logitech G213 Prodigy RGB Gaming Keyboard on PCPerspective.
SilverStone Drive Storage DS223 RAID Enclosure on Tweaktown.
Seagate IronWolf Pro 10TB NAS HDD on eTeknix.
Crucial MX300 2TB SSD on InsideOC.
ADATA SU800 256GB SSD on LanOC.
Kingston MobileLite G4 USB 3.0 Card Reader & UHS-I U3 microSDXC on ModSynergy.
Creative Sound BlasterX Katana Multi-channel Gaming Soundbar on HWAsylum.
Cooler Master MasterPulse Pro RGB Headset on Guru3D.
Creative Sound BlasterX Kratos S3 2.1 Speaker System on MadShrimps.
GEIL Super Luce DDR4-3000 16GB Memory Kit on FunkyKit.
CyberPowerPC GUA2400BST AMD VR Gaming PC on Techgage.
Monday, 20-February-2017 17:38:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg
The NSW Police are expressing concerns about a GTA Mod that skins vehicles and people as NSW Police. In one of the more bizarre things to happen this week, NSW Police Minister Troy Grant has gone on national television to complain about a seven year old mod for Grand Theft Auto 4. The minister, who starred in the Channel Seven evening news last night, complained that a mod (written by "underground computer geeks", according to journalist Mike Duffy) that adds NSW Police vehicles and officers into the game was "peverse". The modders explained why they made it, thanks Axeman.
Village Roadshow continue their push to get piracy sites banned. Site blocking is the first stage of a five point program, which Village outlined this morning. The company will work on “Google take-downs and site ranking demotions” and a “major PR campaign”, it said. “Availability of legal product” and “suing infringers” would follow. Surely "availability of legal content" should be #1 not #4? #5 seems to also be on the way, with suing individuals apparently coming soon. Discussion continues here.
TechARP report from the Samsung Forum 2017. Yesterday, Samsung kicked off Samsung Forum 2017 in sunny Singapore. We were amongst the lucky few to receive an exclusive invitation to the Samsung Forum 2017. Join us as we reveal what Samsung has in store for consumer electronics in 2017!
Superfast internet from the NBN may not be quite so superfast after all. While a download speed of 20 Mbps is faster than the 15 Mbps he could get using ADSL, it is much less than 100 Mbps he is paying for. It is also not consistent.
HWSecrets have an interesting article about what Watson has been up to since winning Jeopardy. In 2011 IBM’s supercomputer won a game of Jeopardy against two of Jeopardy’s greatest champions. That brought the name IBM’s Watson to the forefront of the computer world. That was, however, just the beginning. Watson’s story is both fast-moving and unique.
Mark Zuckerberg posted a lengthy manifesto about Facebook and the global community. Today we are close to taking our next step. Our greatest opportunities are now global -- like spreading prosperity and freedom, promoting peace and understanding, lifting people out of poverty, and accelerating science. Our greatest challenges also need global responses -- like ending terrorism, fighting climate change, and preventing pandemics. Progress now requires humanity coming together not just as cities or nations, but also as a global community. People aren't quite sure what to make of it, but there's coverage on ArsTechnica, TheGuardian and TechCrunch. Discussion here.
This from DJ-Hippster: Just stumbled upon a new YouTuber who’s doing some neat work creating some mini documentaries based on the history of some speed run times. Check out the videos on Super Mario Bros, Super Mario 64 – 120 Star and Super Mario World.
Raijintek TISIS Dual Tower CPU Cooler on Technoyard
Reeven Ouranos 140mm CPU Cooler on FunkyKit
MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Aero Mini ITX on Guru3D
AORUS GTX 1080 XTREME Edition on Vortez
Ubiquiti UniFi AP AC PRO Wi-Fi Access Point (UAP‑AC‑PRO) on Custom PC Review
Anonabox FAWKES Tor Router on OCC
The eero Home WiFi System on PC Perspective
Creative Sound BlasterX Pro-Gaming Katana Desktop Soundbar on eTeknix
Logitech G533 Wireless Headset on LanOC
Genius SP-925BT Bluetooth Speaker om PC Perspective
SilverStone Redline RL06 PRO ATX Mid-Tower on NikKTech
Aerocool P7-C1 on techPowerUp
Intel Core i3-7350K Kaby Lake Processor on Think Computers
Rockit Cool Rockit 88 Processor Delidding Tool on Hardware Asylum
Venom Blackbook Zero 14 Laptop on PC World
Huawei Mate 9 on PC Perspective
MSI GE62 7RD Apache Laptop on Techspot
Sandberg PowerBank 18200 on NikKTech
GAMDIAS ZEUS P1 RGB Optical Gaming Mouse on TweakTown
AVerMedia Live Gamer Portable 2 Capture Device on TweakTown
AZIO MGK L80 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Techgage
Halo Wars 2 (XBO) on Gaming Nexus
For Honor (PC) on Techspot
Dynasty Warriors: Godseekers (PS4) on Gaming Nexus
Western Digital Red WD80EFZX 8TB Hard Drive on APH Networks
Super Flower Platinum King 650W Power Supply on Tech Powerup
Supermicro C7Z270-CG Motherboard on TweakTown.
Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4-3000 RAM on PC World
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How to counter the coronavirus threat to your financial health
The maximum impact will, of course, be on China, but other countries are not immune to it because most economies are now globally integrated. Moreover, any slowdown in China, which is the world’s second biggest economy and accounts for close to 16% of the global GDP (gross domestic product), is also likely to impact other economies, including India, which imports various goods from China. Various economic activities in China have taken a hit. Offices, factories, schools and other establishments are being shut across the country, as more and more people get quarantined to contain the spread of the virus. Travel to and from China has also been restricted.
Such outbreaks are not uncommon—there was SARS in 2002-2003, Nipah in 2018 and Ebola in 2014-2016. So it makes sense to keep certain ground rules in mind. We give you a low-down on how a pandemic like coronavirus can affect your financial health and what you can do about it.
Impact on investments
Financial planners said some of their clients are getting anxious about the likely impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the stock market and asking how they should deal with it? Should they exit some of their equity investments and invest later when the markets tank?
So far, the reaction of global equity markets, including Indian markets, has been limited, but experts said it could lead to a disruption in economic activities due to supply side constraints, which will result in market volatility.
“Concerns regarding the impact of coronavirus are very real, though the equity markets are brushing it off due to sloshing liquidity. Any disruption in Chinese economic activities would have a lasting and larger impact on global economic growth,” said Pankaj Bobade, fundamental research head, Axis Securities Ltd.
“The equity markets driven by positive earnings growth outlook would get a rude shock in case of limited or contracting economic activities due to disruption in supply chains from China,” he added.
Due to the fear and uncertainty in the markets about the scale and impact of the virus outbreak, gold prices have seen a rally as the commodity is considered a safe haven. But should you increase your allocation to gold? Experts said that such short-term events shouldn’t make you change the allocation to investments which are meant to achieve long-term goals.
What to do: “Investing in equities is advisable for the long term. Focusing on long-term goal with a risk-adjusted approach will ensure that such events do not unnerve you. If you had invested in a diversified equity fund, the manager would have pared down his exposure to sectors and companies that could be negatively impacted by events such as the coronavirus outbreak,” said Lovaii Navlakhi,managing director and CEO, International Money Matters Pvt. Ltd, a financial planning firm. Though you must stay on course for your long-term goals, it is during such times that an emergency fund comes handy.
“We are advising people not to worry and tinker with their long-term investments. The best way to deal with it is to have adequate emergency funds. As we have seen there have been situations like lockdown, they may also plan to keep some part of the emergency fund in cash in case the situation worsens, ” said Vishal Dhawan, founder, Plan Ahead Wealth Advisors, a financial planning firm.
Impact on travel
In order to curtail the spread of the virus, several countries have imposed travel restrictions to China. Some of them have imposed a ban on the entry of foreign nationals travelling from China. Many airlines have also cancelled their flights to and from China. Even individuals have cancelled or delayed their plans to travel not only to China but other neighbouring countries where there is a scare.
“The initial virus scare caused a dip in bookings for countries like China, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore,” said Aloke Bajpai, co-founder, Ixigo.com, a travel and hotel booking website. “However, with a drop in new cases reported, the situation is now stabilizing and demand for travel is picking up,” he added.
Bajpai said some airlines have assured refunds to customers who hold on to their tickets now and cancel later in case the situation deteriorates. But remember that not all airlines will be providing this facility, and last-minute cancellation or booking can cost you more. Apart from this, you must prepare for possible medical emergencies, when travelling.
What to do: If you are still to book your tickets, especially for an international destination, you can cover your likely losses in the future by buying travel insurance. These policies generally provide a cover against any expenses or losses due to medical requirements or travel booking cancellations (in case the airlines cancels the flight due to reasons such as the coronavirus outbreak).
“If one is travelling overseas, travel insurance is a must-have, especially in a situation like this as it provide cover against emergency medical expenses, loss of baggage and cancellation of flight,” said Abhishek Bondia, principal officer and managing director, Securenow.in, an insurance broking firm.
“The widespread outbreak of coronavirus and current difficulties in its treatment protocol necessitates immediate top-of-the-line medical treatment to save lives. This underscores the significant importance of travel insurance as financial protection when you need it most,” said Parag Ved, executive vice-president and head, consumer lines, Tata AIG General Insurance Co. Ltd.
Impact on spending
China is a manufacturing hub and an export-oriented country with India being one of the biggest importers.
According to a report released last week by PhilipCapital, a stock broking firm, China accounts for 14% of the total imports of India. “Current understanding of coronavirus indicates that its impact is expected to last for Q4FY20 and improve thereafter. There will be a two-level impact—importers will be impacted due to supply-chain risks; exporters will suffer because of China lockdown,” stated the report. Therefore, the supply side disruption may impact prices.
According to the report, India imports electronic components, telecom instruments, auto components and other products from China. The price increase will depend on the segment’s dependency on China in terms of raw material as well as the inventory management of importers and how fast they can find replacements in case things deteriorate further.
In the auto segment, there could be a price rise due to supply side pressure, said experts. “Consumers may see car price hikes as car manufacturers have to bear extra burden due to rising logistic cost. We have inputs that freight prices are already signalling a three-time hike,” said Puneet Gupta, associate director, automotive forecasting, IHS Markit, a research and consulting firm.
“It will also lead to rising interest rates because the (monetary) policy response to supply-shortage inflation is to dampen demand,” said Tim Nicolle, founder and chief executive officer, PrimaDollar, a trade finance company.
What to do: If you are planning to buy goods such as electronic items or cars, don’t rush into the purchase just because of the scare. Evaluate the situation and then make a decision.
Although the situation looks grim, governments across countries are taking measures to control the impact. Experts believe that India may benefit from the situation as importers of China may look for alternatives. “Over the long run, there is a high probability of a shift in the supply chains from China to India in almost all the areas; we are looking at the situation as ‘glass half full’ from the long-term horizon,” said Bobade.
Such outbreaks, typically, have a short-term impact on your financial health, so don’t panic and make hasty decisions. But it’s always good to be prepared for any eventuality. Have a health insurance for your family to meet sudden medical expenses, create an emergency fund and stay put with your investments.
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Google Opens up Brand Name Bidding
Beginning June 15, 2009, Google is relaxing its policy on use of trademarks in ad copy text. In the past, Google has restricted the use of brand names in ad text and was willing to take action to prevent it which allowed you to authorize specific resellers to use your brand while restricting the remainder […]
Beginning June 15, 2009, Google is relaxing its policy on use of trademarks in ad copy text.
In the past, Google has restricted the use of brand names in ad text and was willing to take action to prevent it which allowed you to authorize specific resellers to use your brand while restricting the remainder of the market.
Now Google will allow previously disapproved ads to run on Google.com and the content network in the USA, without the need for approval by the trademark owner.
Who stands to benefit?
Google stands to gain most here, with advertising revenues set for a boost due to a higher cost per click and potentially more clicks on trademark terms as more ads compete for space on the search engine results page.
Others standing to benefit will be new market entrants or smaller, less established brands.
The policy change will allow smaller brands to associate themselves with the established names in their sector.
The other advertisers most likely to benefit from the new policy rules will be those selling goods or offering services that are considered to be a commodity, where the price or convenience of the good or service matters more than who is offering it.
Trustworthiness will remain a differentiating factor here, and internet users will still continue to prefer websites that they have transacted on in the past, as long as the experience was positive.
â€œIt makes sense under U.S. law. Itâ€™s pro-competitive,â€ Gene Landy, a trademark attorney with the firm Ruberto, Israel & Weiner PC in Boston, said yesterday in an interview.
â€œItâ€™s not much different than if I put an ad in the paper that said â€˜thinking about buying a Mercedes? Buy a Volvo instead.â€™â€
But owners of prestige brands don’t see it that way. They see use of their terms in Google’s “Sponsored Link” ads is a trademark violation.”
Such use of keywords six years ago triggered a trademark- infringement lawsuit in Europe by luxury retailer LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA.
The owner of Louis Vuitton claimed the practice violates its protected brand names. Google has settled similar U.S. lawsuits by AMR Corp.â€™s American Airlines and auto-insurer Geico Corp.
In 2006, the Paris Central Court ordered Google to pay LVMH 300,000 euros for trademark infringement.
Franceâ€™s highest appeals court last year referred the case to the EU tribunal for guidance. A ruling is expected by next year.
Source: Altogether Digital


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The European Union's antitrust watchdog said that it would look into Broadcom Inc.'s plans to buy VMware Inc. for $61 billion.
The European Commission, which is in charge of making sure antitrust laws are followed in the EU, was worried that the deal would let Broadcom make it harder for other companies to sell certain hardware components.
Other regulators have also expressed interest in the transaction. The Competition and Markets Authority of the United Kingdom has stated that it is investigating the proposed acquisition. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has requested information from the companies regarding the transaction, citing a prior regulatory filing.
Broadcom said it was excited to keep working with European regulators as part of their review process.
VMware said that the merger would give customers of both companies more options and freedom.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the EU said that its first look at the agreement made them worried about hardware parts like network interface cards and storage adapters.
According to the commission, Broadcom could make it more difficult for VMware's software to interoperate with rival hardware. It was also said that the company could keep competitors out by making it harder for them to use VMware's software or by stopping them from using it.
The commission said it would also look into whether Broadcom got in the way of other companies making smart network interface cards or started bundling its software with VMware's software in a way that made customers' choices more limited.


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Samsung is working on a new Galaxy F-series smartphone—Galaxy F14 5G—and it could make its global debut in India in January 2023, reports 91Mobiles. Citing anonymous sources, the publication claims that the phone will be sold in India exclusively through Flipkart and Samsung’s official online store for the country.
This isn’t the first time we hear about the Galaxy F14 5G though. A couple of weeks ago, the phone (SM-E146B/DS) was spotted on the Bureau of India Standards (BIS) certification platform. However, the specifications and pricing of the smartphone are scarce at the moment.
Typically, the Galaxy F-series phones are rebranded versions of Galaxy M-series and Galaxy A-series devices. However, Samsung hasn’t launched Galaxy M14 5G or Galaxy A14 5G either (both of which are in the works). So, it is hard to predict what we can expect from the Galaxy F14 5G.
Going by the naming convention, the Galaxy F14 5G seems to be an upgrade over the Galaxy F13. So, expect it to have a better screen, processor, and/or cameras. We hope that Samsung doesn’t cram the Galaxy F14 5G with the same, slow-performing Exynos 850 SoC that’s in the Galaxy F13.


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Aruba might be far from the central sports scene, but several natives have made their mark in the big leagues and are considered heroes. Here is a report from a recent first-hand visit to the island.
The Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) and its licensee, 108 Stitches, announced they will be making MLBPA commemorative 50th anniversary T-shirts – created exclusively for the players – available to the public for a limited time.
Get Topps Power Players code cards in Topps Series 1 and 2 Baseball, enter the codes online to form your team, and if the best players for the week are on your team, you win.
Topps’ Big League Mini, small vinyl figurines, are available now, and each of the 28 players featured has a variant – a collecting angle that won’t break the bank.
Topps is straying away from baseball cards in 2013 – at least for one product line. Big League Minis – collectible vinyl figurines – will hit the market in June 2013.
A fantasy baseball game that rewards you with autograph card and more? Count me in. Topps reveals the Bowman Prospect Challenge, where collectors enter codes, pick the prospects they think will excel and win prizes.
Lefty Grove fans will want to check out the upcoming Collect Auction sale from Nov. 19-29. Grove items will include his MLB lifetime pass, a Zenith radio he was awarded by teammates after his 300th win and multiple signed items.
Come one, come all and use your sports knowledge to pick the winner of 10 sports match-ups this weekend. Pick more winners than everyone else and win a signed 8×10 photo.
Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III square off in this week’s Beat the Blogger Match-ups. Pick this winner and more in this week’s match-ups – winner(s) get a signed 8×10 photo. Play today, it’s free.
The MLB All-Star FanFest auction conducted by Hunt Auctions concludes live tomorrow at 10 a.m. Currently, a Ty Cobb bat is approaching $120,000 and items from the personal collections of Harmon Killebrew and Jim Palmer are drawing heavy interest.


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Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr and Speaker Paul D. Ryan navigated a sensitive trade issue on the campaign trail Tuesday as they both lamented and defended President Donald Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs during a joint appearance at Toyota Tsusho America in Georgetown, Kentucky.
“Obviously, this is a very trade sensitive industry,” Barr said to the auto manufacturer’s employees, before launching into a defense of Trump’s trade inclinations.
“The general objectives of the administration are right on. We need to get fair, free trade,” he said.
Barr said lawmakers, who have oversight over the administration’s trade deals, have been monitoring the tariff situation “to make sure the strategy is actually working.” That strategy, he said, is to have fair, reciprocal trade without tariffs.
“Where I want to go with these tariffs eventually is zero tariffs on all sides of every border,” Barr said.
Ryan agreed with Barr that while he opposes tariffs, the administration’s strategy seems to be working.
“The goal of all of this is — and it’s becoming more clearly in sight — is to get better agreements with our allies,” the Wisconsin Republican said.
Ryan cited the new revised trade deal with Canada and Mexico as an example, noting that it addressed a lot of problems like Canadian tariffs on U.S. dairy exports in the previous agreement.
“I wasn’t a fan of tariffs. I still am not,” Ryan said, before adding that they have “succeeded in getting our allies to come back to the table.”
Watch: McConnell, Schumer React to Trump Trade Deal


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Yahoo PH to hold 2nd annual TechnoStorm
Yahoo Philippines, in partnership with tech companies and local telcos, is holding their second Tech Expo called TechnoStorm at the Central Plaza of Market! Market! in Taguig City.
Apart from showcasing a wide array of gadgets, the event will also feature notable speakers who’ll share their insights on how technology is shaping up both locally and around the globe.
In addition, renowned commercial photographer Winston Baltasar will also be there to give some tips on how you can improve your shots using your smartphone through his free Phone Photography Workshop.
The Yahoo TechnoStorm will kick off on November 29 and will span until December 1. For more information about the event, you can head over to the source link below.


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Amphan deals Satkhira mango growers a big blow
Mango growers and traders have sought government assistance to get out of difficulties
Cyclone Amphan that battered Satkhira last week has doubled the woes of mango farmers in the district who were already in trouble due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
They have no other way but to dump their mangoes in the trash bins as the customers are not interested in buying those damaged by the cyclone.
The farmers and traders said this year their woes were exacerbated by Amphan which crushed all hopes they had with the upcoming harvest. Mango traders have suffered huge losses.
Rajab Ali Khan, owner of M/s Russell Traders, a mango trader in Borobazar, said there were no buyers of mangoes battered down by the cyclone. Instead, one has to spend money for dumping the rotten mangoes in the dustbin. It has doubled their losses.
"Small traders and mango farmers have sent the damaged mangoes here so that we can manage any buyer. Initially 2-10 kg mangoes were sold at Tk4-5 per kg but now none is interested to buy those," he said.
"Thousands of kilogrammes of mangoes have been damaged in Borobazar. Every mango trader has suffered such a loss. I have lost more than Tk2 lakh."
Mango trader Hasan Ali of Munjitpur area of the town, said, "I had bought mango orchards for Tk10 lakh. I expected a return of Tk15-16 lakh from the orchards. This year I lost total investment due to the cyclone."
Bulu, a mango trader of the same area, said, "I had a mango orchard worth Tk4 lakh. I expected to sell mangoes worth Tk6-7 lakh. The Amphan destroyed everything."
Abdus Sadeq, a mango trader of old Satkhira College area, said the mango orchard worth Tk8 lakh was destroyed by the storm this year. "I lost the capital of my business. We have yet to get any cooperation from the department of agriculture."
Mango growers and traders have sought government assistance to get out of difficulties.
There are 5,299 mango orchards on 4,110 hectares of land in Satkhira. Of these, Himsagar mangoes grow on 1,550 hectares, Langra on 564 hectares and Amrapali on 899 hectares. The mighty cyclone damaged 16,296 tonnes of mangoes in the district, according to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).
Satkhira Agriculture Extension Department's Deputy Director Nurul Islam said 13,100 mango farmers in the district were affected by the cyclone Amphan. Their list has been sent to the higher authorities. "If we receive any government aid, it will be distributed among the affected people."
Satkhira Deputy Commissioner SM Mostafa Kamal said, "We have also bought some mangoes from the traders and distributed those as relief in an attempt to save the farmers and traders from loss."